PhilAgriNet (Philippine Agricultural Information Services Network)

Welcome to the PhilAgriNet Blog Site

PhilAgriNet is an active collaboration among information providers in various major agricultural institutions in the Philippines. Its active database of Philippine agricultural research literature aims to link worldwide researchers with the products of research in the country. Those interested in becoming members may write to the Director of DA-BAR, Dr. Nicomedes Eleazar, stating their intent to join PhilAgriNet.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Sixty plus participants from all over the Philippines participated in the Seminar-Workshop on Updating and Enhancing Skills of PhilAgriNet Members on Database Content Management and Annual General Assembly on March 1-2, 2012 at the Hotel Kimberly, Tagaytay City. The Keynote Speaker was Dr. Nicomedes Eleazar, Director of the Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR) who commended PhilAgriNet members in their efforts to create awareness of local agricultural research outputs via the PhilAgriNet database. The other lecturers and their topics were Ms. Julia Lapitan - Current Status of PhilAgriNet; Mrs. Mila M. Ramos - DSpace: an alternative in database content management; Mrs. Concepcion DL. Saul - Dublin Core Metadata and Review of Metadata Elements in the PhilAgriNet database; Ms. Carmelita S. Austria - Subject Indexing; and Ms. Cherry Ann Barrientos - Data Encoding tutorials. The members committed themselves to focus on content development and later on to engage in membership campaigns and creating awareness of PhilAgriNet.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

A group of PhilAgriNet officers and members are making the rounds to check how the different PhilAgriNet sites are faring while using DSpace. Some enhancements have been made on the PhilAgriNet database structure and it is necessary that members are able to use these. The monitoring group consists of Connie Saul, Jeng Lapitan, Cherry Ann Barrientos, and Ards Navallo. So far they have visited various sites in Davao and Bicol. More sites will be visited and updated in 2012.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

It is very important for network members to be active in the network's projects. In the case of PhilAgriNet, the top priorities are development and maintenance of the PhilAgriNet database and capacity building for members and prospective members.Currently, in spite of the efforts of everyone concerned the growth of the database has been very slow because of technical, staff, and other problems. Now, it is apparent that some technical kinks regarding software have been solved and inputs will come in faster than before.What incentives lie ahead for PhilAgriNet members? First and foremost is the opportunity to create better awareness of their products of research. The world's scientists will know what each agricultural institution has accomplished. Then there is always the chance to add new knowledge and develop skills through PhilAgriNet's capacity building workshops and those sponsored by other groups. On the side, exchange of best practices takes place as members socialize with colleagues in the field. Members are also made aware of trends in the information field via social networking tools such as blogs, FB page, and the web site. What else can a PhilAgriNet member wish for?

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Agricultural institutions worldwide fight hunger indirectly through their research initiatives. Agricultural institutions in the Philippines, for one, have been actively conducting researches and programs that produce in vital agricultural research literature. However, not all of these are made available to potential users. It is in this light that the Bureau of Agricultural Research of the Department of Agriculture (DA-BAR) conceived the idea of training their information officers on the rudiments of information documentation and sharing in order to create a team of DA information officers who are capable of database creation, management, and dissemination.

Thirty six (36) participants coming from various regions of the Philippines (from Northern Luzon up to Southern Mindanao), gathered at the Hotel Kimberly, Tagaytay City on July 6-8 for a 2-day Training Workshop on Information Documentation and Management for DA RIARCs and RFRDCs. The trainors are seasoned librarians and information officers who shared their expertise on the following topics: The Value of Documentation of Philippine Agricultural Research Outputs (Julia A. Lapitan, Head, ACD,DA-BAR); Introduction to PhilAgriNet, AGRIS, and other Agricultural Databases (Concepcion DL. Saul, UPLB University Librarian);Selection and Evaluation of Documents (Ryan Joseph Abrigo,Librarian, DA-BAR); Introduction to Document Indexing and Dublin Core Metadata (Mila M. Ramos, Member, Board for Librarians, PRC); Subject Indexing and Controlled Vocabularies (Carmelita S, Austria, Librarian Consultant); and Data Input and Exporting of Metadata (Cherry Ann Barrientos (System Analyst, UPLB). The lectures were supplementted with open discussions, demonstrations, and hands-on exercises using Dublin Core and DSpace for PhilAgriNet. Each participant from DA was provided with a laptop with the DSpace program and indexing template already embedded in it. After the workshop, the participants declared that with the newly acquired skills and hands-on experience, they are now ready to contribute metadata to the PhilAgriNet and AGRIS databases. In addition, they stated their wish to have follow-up training programs in the future so that they may acquire additional information and update their skills in indexing and database management.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

The Bureau of Agricultural Research has enlisted the technical expertise of selected PhilAgriNet officers to train DA-RIARCS and RFRDCs on basic information documentation and management. The training workshop, to be held in July 2011, was conceptualized by DA-BAR ACD Head, Ms. Julia Lapitan, to enable the various DA regional offices to share their literature output with other scientists. The keynote address will be delivered by Dr.Nicomedes Eleazar, Director of DA-BAR. The training modules will consist of lectures, demos, and hands-on sessions on computerized indexing and sharing of metadata. The lecturers are Ms. Julia Lapitan and Mr. Ryan Abrigo of DA-BAR, Ms. Connie Saul, UPLB University Librarian, Ms. Mila Ramos, Library Consultant and Member, Board for Librarians, and Ms. Carmelita Austria, Library Consultant.The workshop aims to create a team of agricultural officers who are capable of database creation and management by documenting and indexing agricultural literature generated by their respective institutionsfor input in the PhilAgriNet and AGRIS databases. This will create worldwide awareness of the products of Philippine agricultural research.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

PhilAgriNet is planning to migrate from WebAGRIS to another application to enable members to upload data faster. Members are enjoined to suggest a new software for the database, one that is easy to install and user-friendly. Since PhilAgriNet is short on funds, most probably this will be an open source software. The PhilAgriNet consultants are confering with IT and database experts from other institutions to enable PhilAgriNet leadership to decide which one to use. DSpace seems to be a strong candidate for the PhilAgriNet database. Feedback from officers and members would be highly appreciated.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

"Consultation on the CIARD Framework for Data and Information SharingIn 2011, CIARD is addressing the topic of sharing and interoperability of data and information for agricultural research for development.There will be an international Expert Consultation in Beijing from 20 to 23 June 2011 with the title "Building the CIARD Framework for Data and Information Sharing".An electronic consultation will be held from 4 to 15 April on the e-Agriculture platform (www.e-agriculture.org) with the same title, in preparation for the Beijing workshop. Both events will be conducted in English. The e-Consultation will address the following questions: What are we sharing and what needs to be shared? What are the prospects for interoperability in the future? What are the emerging tools, standards and infrastructures? What actions should now be facilitated by the CIARD Task Forces?The background document (http://bit.ly/eWaUDf) explains some of the issues behind the questions and provides some material for discussion. Experts in various aspects of this field are acting as resource persons and contributing their observations to the discussions in the e-Consultation;Balaji Venkataraman, Commonwealth of Learning, CanadaDiane Le Hénaff, INRA (National Institute for Agricultural Research), FranceHugo Besemer, Wageningen University, The NetherlandsIvo Pierozzi, EMBRAPA, BrazilNikos Manouselis, AgroKnows, GreeceWe encourage you to participate and contribute from your own experience and expertise. We also request that you give wide publicity to the e-Consultation among your colleagues and invite their participation.The e-Consultation will be held on the a-Agriculture platform from 4 to 15 April 2011 at http://www.e-agriculture.org The e-Consultation is hosted by CIARD. For more information on CIARD visit http://www.ciard.net For specific queries on the e-Consultation and the International Expert Consultation, please contact: Ms. Bi Jieying (jyingbi@yahoo.com)Active participants in the e-Consultation will be invited by GFAR to present their views at the International Expert Consultation in Beijing in June 2011."